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Author Topic:   Why oh Why have US AND UK Versions

RED1 posted 02-22-99 04:59 PM ET
I cannot think of a reasonable answer to this one, but I know of one consequence - you CANNOT USE THE DAMNED PATCH!
Other games are doing the same thing - and as a UK customer I am annoyed to say the least!
OK - so if there are some minor spelling changes or something - well surely this is the work of an instant for an editor to do!
BTW - anyone at Firaxis know when the UK version of the patch is coming out :-)
Oozie posted 02-22-99 05:30 PM ET
In US you can't make copy protection, it's against the law in there, but in EU you can. And therefore there are different versions. And yes, waiting for UK patch is very annoying..
I wish too that there were no copy protection here in EU, or it would be made so that we europeans wouldn't have to wait for different patch.
Maybe we european customers are easy to be screwed with.
DanS posted 02-22-99 05:33 PM ET
Against the law in the US? Why would it be against the law? Hardly anything is against the law here Only expensive if you get sued
Follol posted 02-22-99 05:55 PM ET
I believe that Firaxis wanted NO copy protection, but European distributors will not distribute software without copy protection, due to (allegedly) massive piracy problems in Europe.
Do some searches if you want; I think I remember reading a few stories about the copy protection in Europe issue on some of the gaming sites.
KeithH posted 02-22-99 08:26 PM ET
Come on now let's be realistic:
1) The vast majority of software is aimed at the US market (Look at SimCity 3000: nearly all the city layouts are American - only London is from the UK)
2) If you have a problem with a game you try getting a reply from the US support team if you don't live in America.
3) We in the UK pay far more for our software, hardware, everything...
4) We should consider ourselves lucky that a non-American patch is in the pipeline at all.
5) Let's face it, we are considered the poor relations of our "cousins" across the water - perhaps soon to be the 52nd state?
DanS posted 02-22-99 08:35 PM ET
Thank you KeithH. With an attitude like that, the US should be top dog for quite some time.
The UK (why go for just England?) will never be admitted as the 52nd state, I'm sad to tell you. American Samoa, I'm sure will be admitted first
KeithH posted 02-22-99 08:46 PM ET
Sorry Dan if I caused any offence. Believe it or not I am NOT anti-the American-people (in fact my sister married an American serviceman and lives in California).
It's just that many of us over here are getting just a little fed up with the perception that Ok America is the only major power left in the world and boy doesn't everybody know about it.
We are fed a constant diet of American news (the Clinton saga for example) which we are supposed to consider is of great importance, but the things that really matter to us over here (for example the recent controversial sacking of the England football manager) I bet wasn't even mentioned over there.
Why just go for England you ask? My point exactly, why for example did SimCity not include Glasgow in its cities?
Brother Greg posted 02-22-99 09:46 PM ET
[sarcasm]
Or "Siddenneenney" to quote good ol' Juan Antonio? As for you UK people, you think you got it tough. We get all the O/S news (yes, Monica/Bill, AND Glenn Hoddle) presented as if it means the world. And have you heard anything about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy fiasco?
So, don't come in here and tell me how tough you got it. Try coming down here. Even our own mother country forgets us.
[/sarcasm]
Hey, at least we got SMAC first. And it was cool seing the (minority of it must be admitted) Seppos whingeing about it, heh heh.
Brother Greg posted 02-22-99 09:49 PM ET
Dang, turned [sarcasm] off too early. Oh well...
mooman posted 02-22-99 10:06 PM ET
I care to disagree keith, here in america we have overwhelmed by princess diana stories from the beginning to the end.
Shining1 posted 02-22-99 10:07 PM ET
BG:
I second that. Totally.
Although, I can at least use the patch, so maybe they DO have a point.
And isn't Britain colourfully known as 'Treasure Island' to many US/EU exporters?
KeithH: That sums up England better than I thought possible. The Clinton saga is supposed to be considered of great importance, but it's nothing compared to... the sacking of the England football manager?
DanS posted 02-22-99 11:13 PM ET
[Story Excerpt]DanS, a swaggering John Wayne-type American, walks into the pub, dressed in an American-style business suit. He sees the cowering KeithH in the corner, who is fully outfitted with a Micky Mouse watch, Nike tennis shoes, Levis blue jeans, and a shirt that says: "My sister went to California and all she got me was this stupid t-shirt." DanS thinks to himself: "that's a perfect guy to steal beer money from."[/Story Excerpt]
Before you jump to conclusions, you should check outside the pub before you judge DanS; he might be driving a Land Rover. He might even have a copy of FT in the front seat.
Really, KeithH, why is it such a dour situation? Don't you like Mickey Mouse Why not just move to America, where everything's better than any other place in the world, especially rainy, dreary England?
Back to serious topics, though. That's a shame about SimCity 3000. American cities are normally a study in dysfunction. Maybe that's the point...
Of course, no offense taken.
Luke Hares posted 02-23-99 07:32 AM ET
The UK copy protect prevents the game from running of some PIIs with DVDs - see Trouble shooting forum, there are only twosolutions at the moment. Either install a second CD drive (like me) or 'patch' terrain.exe with the US version - this also removes the need to have the CD after a full install.
Theres a lesson here somewhere, but I can't quite put my finger on it.....
Luke
MikeH II posted 02-23-99 07:50 AM ET
I've just got used to having to put the CDs in the drives, I even bought a handy CD container to keep them in. Does this validation still happen if you choose a full install? ie Copy all the files from the CD, I think it says in the installation dialog. I'm running out of hard disk space so I'm trying to write all my junk off onto CD to clear up space, is it worth putting the whole of SMAC on the hard drive?
Afterburner posted 02-23-99 08:00 AM ET
What was it the Australian commentator said about the Clinton/Lewinsky affair?
"America got the Puritans. We got the convicts. And thank God we got the convicts."
Or something to that effect...
Yours,
Afterburner
Meglomax posted 02-23-99 08:18 AM ET
To Brother Greg: "You should have called more often, you know what mothers can be like!"
To DanS: "If you walked into the majority of British pubs dressed as you described, trying to steel our beer, you'd be greated with that fateful (yet popular) British phrase 'You're not from 'round 'ere are ya' swiftly followed by the sound of crunching teeth." (Mind you, this is true if you're from a different town let alone a different country).
To Mooman: "So that's where all the Diana stories went to - they're on tour in the US."
To Shining1: "You have to understand one thing, Britian is a small place. When you talk about the sacking of the England Football Manager you're talking about someone we all know personally. Of course we don't care about the Clinton stories, I mean he hasn't even popped by for a cup of Tea and a slice of cake!
The other thing you need to understand is the connection in Britain between Football (soccer) and politics. If England did win a major football tournament the government would, without a doubt, be re-elected. This of course this would never happen in the US because most of the sports leagues are already considered by Americans to be 'world championships'. Therefor its nothing new for an American team to win such a competition, and hence has non bearing on your national politics.
Before drawing this line of discussion to its ultimate conclusion it is important to note that the Prime Minister in the UK is not limited to two terms in office, unlike the President of the USA. It is entirely possible to coincide the elections (roughly every 4 years) with the World Cup. A consistantly victorious English team would lead to never ending re-election.
Perhaps now you understand the level of importance we attribute to our England Manager!"
(Just in case - all above is in jest!)
MikeH II posted 02-23-99 10:52 AM ET
You say it's in jest but politicians do put an unhealthy amount of time into football (who doesn't?) I think they know the relationship.
I think that your assertion that a government which governed after a World Cup win would win the next election is probably true.
I was talking to an American (Venom) about major sporting events and wondered if there was any sporting event in the US which would get 50% of the population watching and leave the streets deserted (For the Americans out there that's NOT an exaggeration and it was only the second round, I don't know what would have happened if it was the final) He couldn't think of one although apparently the Superbowl gets about 30% viewing that's not international sport.
Anyway football is life, American politics is a mildly engaging soap opera. There's no comparison.
DanS posted 02-23-99 03:02 PM ET
I think perhaps Luke has put his finger on something important...
Shining1 posted 02-23-99 06:16 PM ET
Hmmm. Winning the 1987 (Rugby) World Cup may have been the only thing that saved the Labour party here...
And we could well be in for a 4 term of the current Nation Government if the All Blacks win the world cup this year (which they WILL).
And New Zealand has nothing like the sporting fanaticism that Britain (maybe even Europe) has when it comes to football.
There could be something in that, after all, Megalomax.
BikeDude posted 02-24-99 03:26 PM ET
FWIW; I just went through a similar thing with Settlers3 and BlueByte. Their copyprotection failed to work with a couple of faster CD and DVD drives (sound familiar?) and pissed off a lot of customers (me included :-( ).
Finally I returned S3 to the store, and put up a small page so I won't forget them too soon:
http://runesbike.com/BlueByte
I'm saddened to see that Firaxis went into the same trap. Ok, so it was the distributors fault, but I saw no notice on this on Firaxis' web site.
Had I known the game was gonna get delayed in Europe (it was on sale last Thursday or so) and that _this_ was the reason, then I would've preordered it from the states a long time ago!
As I've explained in the tech forum, the game does run under NT4. Under Win2000 Beta3 RC0 only the demo works (terran.exe just spins up the CD drive and then dies without any error message whatsoever).
I hope some kind soul emails me the US version of terran.exe so I can play too. (NT4 has crappy DirectSound support, whereas Win2000 practically shines in comparison)
Please Firaxis: Kick some European distributor's ass, or atleast give us their contact information so that we can complain (and hang 'em out to dry). Hmm... Perhaps that info is in the manuals? Electronic Arts in Europe as well? (the only other logo beside Firaxis' that I can find)
BTW: The European version of AC comes with a preview of "Shogun". Why would a Firaxis game bundle a preview of a competitor's game? Is this official Firaxis policy, or am I mistaken in my assumption that Shogun isn't made by Firaxis?
--
Rune
Luke Hares posted 02-25-99 09:36 AM ET
Well said Rune.
The UK/US different editions thing is ridiculous - its not like they've got to translate the damn thing anyway, and to delay it to include a copy protect that prevents a fair chunk of people from actually playing the game is just plain daft.
Kindly US person whose emailing Rune with the US terrain.exe, please include me! - the extra CD ROM I've had to install to play the game is taking up an IDE slot I could find a better use for.
Luke
Oozie posted 02-25-99 04:51 PM ET
With the US terran.exe I can use the US 2.0 patch to my UK version? No side effects or anything?
Is there a site where I could get the terran.exe or could someone E-mail it to me, please?
Thunder posted 02-26-99 02:08 AM ET
If someone is mailing the US exe, please, mail it to me too.
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Author	Topic: Why oh Why have US AND UK Versions
RED1	posted 02-22-99 04:59 PM ET I cannot think of a reasonable answer to this one, but I know of one consequence - you CANNOT USE THE DAMNED PATCH! Other games are doing the same thing - and as a UK customer I am annoyed to say the least! OK - so if there are some minor spelling changes or something - well surely this is the work of an instant for an editor to do! BTW - anyone at Firaxis know when the UK version of the patch is coming out :-)
Oozie	posted 02-22-99 05:30 PM ET In US you can't make copy protection, it's against the law in there, but in EU you can. And therefore there are different versions. And yes, waiting for UK patch is very annoying.. I wish too that there were no copy protection here in EU, or it would be made so that we europeans wouldn't have to wait for different patch. Maybe we european customers are easy to be screwed with.
DanS	posted 02-22-99 05:33 PM ET Against the law in the US? Why would it be against the law? Hardly anything is against the law here Only expensive if you get sued
Follol	posted 02-22-99 05:55 PM ET I believe that Firaxis wanted NO copy protection, but European distributors will not distribute software without copy protection, due to (allegedly) massive piracy problems in Europe. Do some searches if you want; I think I remember reading a few stories about the copy protection in Europe issue on some of the gaming sites.
KeithH	posted 02-22-99 08:26 PM ET Come on now let's be realistic: 1) The vast majority of software is aimed at the US market (Look at SimCity 3000: nearly all the city layouts are American - only London is from the UK) 2) If you have a problem with a game you try getting a reply from the US support team if you don't live in America. 3) We in the UK pay far more for our software, hardware, everything... 4) We should consider ourselves lucky that a non-American patch is in the pipeline at all. 5) Let's face it, we are considered the poor relations of our "cousins" across the water - perhaps soon to be the 52nd state?
DanS	posted 02-22-99 08:35 PM ET Thank you KeithH. With an attitude like that, the US should be top dog for quite some time. The UK (why go for just England?) will never be admitted as the 52nd state, I'm sad to tell you. American Samoa, I'm sure will be admitted first
KeithH	posted 02-22-99 08:46 PM ET Sorry Dan if I caused any offence. Believe it or not I am NOT anti-the American-people (in fact my sister married an American serviceman and lives in California). It's just that many of us over here are getting just a little fed up with the perception that Ok America is the only major power left in the world and boy doesn't everybody know about it. We are fed a constant diet of American news (the Clinton saga for example) which we are supposed to consider is of great importance, but the things that really matter to us over here (for example the recent controversial sacking of the England football manager) I bet wasn't even mentioned over there. Why just go for England you ask? My point exactly, why for example did SimCity not include Glasgow in its cities?
Brother Greg	posted 02-22-99 09:46 PM ET [sarcasm] Or "Siddenneenney" to quote good ol' Juan Antonio? As for you UK people, you think you got it tough. We get all the O/S news (yes, Monica/Bill, AND Glenn Hoddle) presented as if it means the world. And have you heard anything about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy fiasco? So, don't come in here and tell me how tough you got it. Try coming down here. Even our own mother country forgets us. [/sarcasm] Hey, at least we got SMAC first. And it was cool seing the (minority of it must be admitted) Seppos whingeing about it, heh heh.
Brother Greg	posted 02-22-99 09:49 PM ET Dang, turned [sarcasm] off too early. Oh well...
mooman	posted 02-22-99 10:06 PM ET I care to disagree keith, here in america we have overwhelmed by princess diana stories from the beginning to the end.
Shining1	posted 02-22-99 10:07 PM ET BG: I second that. Totally. Although, I can at least use the patch, so maybe they DO have a point. And isn't Britain colourfully known as 'Treasure Island' to many US/EU exporters? KeithH: That sums up England better than I thought possible. The Clinton saga is supposed to be considered of great importance, but it's nothing compared to... the sacking of the England football manager?
DanS	posted 02-22-99 11:13 PM ET [Story Excerpt]DanS, a swaggering John Wayne-type American, walks into the pub, dressed in an American-style business suit. He sees the cowering KeithH in the corner, who is fully outfitted with a Micky Mouse watch, Nike tennis shoes, Levis blue jeans, and a shirt that says: "My sister went to California and all she got me was this stupid t-shirt." DanS thinks to himself: "that's a perfect guy to steal beer money from."[/Story Excerpt] Before you jump to conclusions, you should check outside the pub before you judge DanS; he might be driving a Land Rover. He might even have a copy of FT in the front seat. Really, KeithH, why is it such a dour situation? Don't you like Mickey Mouse Why not just move to America, where everything's better than any other place in the world, especially rainy, dreary England? Back to serious topics, though. That's a shame about SimCity 3000. American cities are normally a study in dysfunction. Maybe that's the point... Of course, no offense taken.
Luke Hares	posted 02-23-99 07:32 AM ET The UK copy protect prevents the game from running of some PIIs with DVDs - see Trouble shooting forum, there are only twosolutions at the moment. Either install a second CD drive (like me) or 'patch' terrain.exe with the US version - this also removes the need to have the CD after a full install. Theres a lesson here somewhere, but I can't quite put my finger on it..... Luke
MikeH II	posted 02-23-99 07:50 AM ET I've just got used to having to put the CDs in the drives, I even bought a handy CD container to keep them in. Does this validation still happen if you choose a full install? ie Copy all the files from the CD, I think it says in the installation dialog. I'm running out of hard disk space so I'm trying to write all my junk off onto CD to clear up space, is it worth putting the whole of SMAC on the hard drive?
Afterburner	posted 02-23-99 08:00 AM ET What was it the Australian commentator said about the Clinton/Lewinsky affair? "America got the Puritans. We got the convicts. And thank God we got the convicts." Or something to that effect... Yours, Afterburner
Meglomax	posted 02-23-99 08:18 AM ET To Brother Greg: "You should have called more often, you know what mothers can be like!" To DanS: "If you walked into the majority of British pubs dressed as you described, trying to steel our beer, you'd be greated with that fateful (yet popular) British phrase 'You're not from 'round 'ere are ya' swiftly followed by the sound of crunching teeth." (Mind you, this is true if you're from a different town let alone a different country). To Mooman: "So that's where all the Diana stories went to - they're on tour in the US." To Shining1: "You have to understand one thing, Britian is a small place. When you talk about the sacking of the England Football Manager you're talking about someone we all know personally. Of course we don't care about the Clinton stories, I mean he hasn't even popped by for a cup of Tea and a slice of cake! The other thing you need to understand is the connection in Britain between Football (soccer) and politics. If England did win a major football tournament the government would, without a doubt, be re-elected. This of course this would never happen in the US because most of the sports leagues are already considered by Americans to be 'world championships'. Therefor its nothing new for an American team to win such a competition, and hence has non bearing on your national politics. Before drawing this line of discussion to its ultimate conclusion it is important to note that the Prime Minister in the UK is not limited to two terms in office, unlike the President of the USA. It is entirely possible to coincide the elections (roughly every 4 years) with the World Cup. A consistantly victorious English team would lead to never ending re-election. Perhaps now you understand the level of importance we attribute to our England Manager!" (Just in case - all above is in jest!)
MikeH II	posted 02-23-99 10:52 AM ET You say it's in jest but politicians do put an unhealthy amount of time into football (who doesn't?) I think they know the relationship. I think that your assertion that a government which governed after a World Cup win would win the next election is probably true. I was talking to an American (Venom) about major sporting events and wondered if there was any sporting event in the US which would get 50% of the population watching and leave the streets deserted (For the Americans out there that's NOT an exaggeration and it was only the second round, I don't know what would have happened if it was the final) He couldn't think of one although apparently the Superbowl gets about 30% viewing that's not international sport. Anyway football is life, American politics is a mildly engaging soap opera. There's no comparison.
DanS	posted 02-23-99 03:02 PM ET I think perhaps Luke has put his finger on something important...
Shining1	posted 02-23-99 06:16 PM ET Hmmm. Winning the 1987 (Rugby) World Cup may have been the only thing that saved the Labour party here... And we could well be in for a 4 term of the current Nation Government if the All Blacks win the world cup this year (which they WILL). And New Zealand has nothing like the sporting fanaticism that Britain (maybe even Europe) has when it comes to football. There could be something in that, after all, Megalomax.
BikeDude	posted 02-24-99 03:26 PM ET FWIW; I just went through a similar thing with Settlers3 and BlueByte. Their copyprotection failed to work with a couple of faster CD and DVD drives (sound familiar?) and pissed off a lot of customers (me included :-( ). Finally I returned S3 to the store, and put up a small page so I won't forget them too soon: http://runesbike.com/BlueByte I'm saddened to see that Firaxis went into the same trap. Ok, so it was the distributors fault, but I saw no notice on this on Firaxis' web site. Had I known the game was gonna get delayed in Europe (it was on sale last Thursday or so) and that _this_ was the reason, then I would've preordered it from the states a long time ago! As I've explained in the tech forum, the game does run under NT4. Under Win2000 Beta3 RC0 only the demo works (terran.exe just spins up the CD drive and then dies without any error message whatsoever). I hope some kind soul emails me the US version of terran.exe so I can play too. (NT4 has crappy DirectSound support, whereas Win2000 practically shines in comparison) Please Firaxis: Kick some European distributor's ass, or atleast give us their contact information so that we can complain (and hang 'em out to dry). Hmm... Perhaps that info is in the manuals? Electronic Arts in Europe as well? (the only other logo beside Firaxis' that I can find) BTW: The European version of AC comes with a preview of "Shogun". Why would a Firaxis game bundle a preview of a competitor's game? Is this official Firaxis policy, or am I mistaken in my assumption that Shogun isn't made by Firaxis? -- Rune
Luke Hares	posted 02-25-99 09:36 AM ET Well said Rune. The UK/US different editions thing is ridiculous - its not like they've got to translate the damn thing anyway, and to delay it to include a copy protect that prevents a fair chunk of people from actually playing the game is just plain daft. Kindly US person whose emailing Rune with the US terrain.exe, please include me! - the extra CD ROM I've had to install to play the game is taking up an IDE slot I could find a better use for. Luke
Oozie	posted 02-25-99 04:51 PM ET With the US terran.exe I can use the US 2.0 patch to my UK version? No side effects or anything? Is there a site where I could get the terran.exe or could someone E-mail it to me, please?
Thunder	posted 02-26-99 02:08 AM ET If someone is mailing the US exe, please, mail it to me too.